Forms And Modern Manifestations Of Racism Social

Work Essay

Published: Mon, 5 Dec 2016

Racism embodies the ideology or practice via demonstrated power of

perceiving the dominance of one group over others by on the grounds of
color, race, ethnicity, or cultural heritage, whereby ethnic minorities might be
perceived as being biologically (intrinsically) inferior and, thus, practices
detailing their domination and exploitation are justified. In many places across
the world, racism is manifested at individual, group, or institutional level.
Individual racism comprising of overt acts perpetuated by individuals that
injure another or their property; institutional racism, which details processes
that, deliberately, or not, yield to the prolonged exclusion of a subordinate
group and activities and practices that are fashioned to safeguard the
advantages of the superior group and/or sustain or broaden the uneven
position of a subordinate group. Racism has over the years been
institutionalized and sustained via educational, economic, religious, political,
social, and cultural policies and activities.

Racism is functional in that it is employed to sustain structural inequalities

within the society that are skewed against individuals of color or minority
groups. Systematic discrimination against certain members of visibly
identifiable racial and ethnic groups has continued to pervade most aspects of
people’s lives inclusive of education, politics, economics, religion, social
relationships, housing, and employment.

Sources and causes of racism and deeply embedded throughout major

aspects of many societies. The sources and causes of racism can be delineated
as colonialism whereby the intrinsically racist process of colonialisation availed
the basis and continued presence of systematic racism within most societies.
Other causes of racism include pervasive ignorance, fear and lack of
appreciation of cultural diversity, power and privilege. One of the outstanding
impacts of racism in disadvantaging the minorities details the invisibility of the
achievement of minorities over the centuries. Since capitalist societies mainly
recognize achievements that can be translated into monetary terms, the
portrayal of minority groups as criminals or poverty stricken serves to paint
them as burdens of history. As a result, racism leads to entrenching of
disadvantaged position of ethnic minorities.

Historically, racism has been employed to validate the conquering of ethnic

minorities to obtain key resources such as land, strategic military outposts, or
forced cheap labour. In most societies diverse racial and ethnic groups possess
unequal access to power, prestige, presumed worth, and resources whereby
individuals possessing superior power, majority group, develop a system of
inequality by controlling the less-powerful groups. The resultant system of
inequality is then sustained and perpetuated via social forces.

The impact of racism within the society are widely manifested in poor health
and health services, low wages, inadequate access to mental health services,
substandard housing, high incidences of school dropouts, high unemployment
and under-employment, and reduced access t higher education opportunities,
as well as other institution maladies. It is ironical that the lack of jobs, housing,
or other resources has led to minority scapegoating whereby ethnic minorities
are increasingly becoming a scapegoat for prevalent social problems within
the society.

Forms and modern manifestations of racism

In equality in access to critical resources within the society such as health

across ethnic groups may not be necessarily reducible to socioeconomic
arrangement. Indeed, the relative deprivation encountered by ethnic
minorities within the society is highly likely to involve more than mere material
disadvantage as ethnic minorities face significant alienation and racial
harassment. Research indicates that racial harassment and perceptions of
prejudice possess significant impact in disadvantaging ethnic minorities within
the society.

Political sphere

In the contemporary society, there is an increase and support gained by

political parties and entities that that openly express racist, bigoted, and
xenophobic views. This has placed ethnic minorities, who are marginally
represented, at a disadvantage mainly through exclusion policies. Minorities
are also underrepresented in decision-making and administrative positions
and the instituted affirmative programs have only yielded conflict and polarity
among the employees.
Employment,

Racism has been widely reported in the arena of employment, which leads to
economic depression for members of the oppressed racial and ethnic groups.
The experience of majority of ethnic minority within the job market has not
been always pleasant or positive with some individuals from minority groups
and recent immigrants earning relatively lower pay than their white
counterparts despite being sometimes well qualified and highly educated. In
some cases, racial discrimination is reported within the workplace centring on
an individual’s appearance, denial of career advancement opportunities, and
ascription of cultural stereotypes to individuals.

There is a continued absence of employment opportunities for ethnic

minorities, although the general agreement cited mainly details lack of skills
on the part of the ethnic minorities. Nevertheless, in most cases structural
barriers hamper access to the labour market, plus other economic
opportunities. Similarly, the unemployment rate for adolescents from ethnic
minorities is in many instances disproportionately distributed with higher
percentages reported among people from ethnic minorities compared to their
white counterparts.

Education

Individuals from minority groups often have lower education attainment. The
persistent low levels of educational and occupational outcomes attained by
ethnic minorities can be cited, in part, as resulting from structural
discrimination within the education sector. This can be regarded as systemic
racism and the reluctance education authorities and the government to
introduce various cultural models of learning and teaching within the curricula,
which in turn leads to a disproportionate access of education. The education
system in some societies systematically denies similar access and prospect to
children from ethnic minorities, especially where the minorities are poor.

Accommodation

Some minority groups encounter challenges in gaining accommodation

whereby minorities (people of different race or color) are expected to reside in
separate districts. This represents a microcosm mirroring all the major facets at
all levels of society. Ethnic minorities are often denied accommodation based
on race manifested in numerous cases where individuals from the ethnic
minorities are informed of availability of accommodation, but later informed
of non-availability after their race or ethnic background became known.
Similarly, individuals from ethnic minorities are sometimes issued with
inadequate and inappropriate public housing stock. In many instances, ethnic
minorities have minimal choice as to places that they reside and often end up
paying higher rent for less adequate housing. It is documented that mortgage
and lending institutions within the U.S. have on several occasions perpetuated
the illegal practice of redlining mortgages in minority neighborhoods. Studies
in this area have unearthed consistent discrimination against ethnic minorities
by financial institutions, real estate agencies, and landlords.

Service provision

Individuals from ethnic minorities often face discrimination in the day-to-day

provision of goods and services manifested by the lack of services availed by
majority of Councils. Social service mainly masks symptoms of larger problems
such as racism, illiteracy, unemployment, and poverty. The need for social
service stem from economic policies and practices and in many cases, the
society puts the blame on minority groups and constantly adjust the
individuals to suit the existing societal conditions.

Criminal justice

The pervasive disproportionate high rates of incarceration of individuals from

ethnic minorities are frequently cited as mirroring the systemic discrimination
within the society. Individuals from ethnic minorities often, especially males,
often complain of over-policing. There are numerous claims of individuals
from ethnic minorities being searched by security personnel devoid of
reasonable justification. The ethnic descriptors employed by the police,
politicians, and the media yields “criminalization of ethnic minorities. As a
result, Ethnic minorities sometimes are unwilling to report incidences of racist
crime to law enforcement authorities in the belief that their report will not be
acted upon.

Minority ethnic groups often possess disproportionately high incidences of

criminal offending and victimization. This is largely driven by factors such as
persistent racial inequality and concentrated poverty that culminate into
frustration, which, in turn, heightens delinquency and possible aggression.
Ethnic minorities who are racially segregated and who manifest high rates of
poverty, family disruption, social isolation, and unemployment experience high
levels of crime and violence. High concentrations of poverty and high levels of
racial segregation have interacted to create social conditions that
disadvantage ethnic minorities.

Healthcare

The core factor influencing health inequality within the UK centres on the
social class. A significant section of ethnic minorities are frequently located
within the lowest social classes, which renders them vulnerable to diseases of
poverty and deprivation. Healthcare systems in societies where racism is rife
do not meet the needs of people of ethnic minorities whereby healthcare
costs continue to increase while the quality and accessibility of services
decrease. Moreover, too many health care facilities tend to be established in
places that are inaccessible to low-income urban neighborhoods where most
ethnic minorities reside.

Public welfare

The welfare system has in instances been exploited to keep wages low and
sustain a pool of people available undertake menial, unskilled jobs. Public
welfare services in most instances fail to include services such as educational,
child care, family planning, job training, or unemployment insurance services
that will contribute to the empowerment of individuals to gain from the
economic system. The disregard for individual rights and human dignity,
incoherent policies, and contravention of regulations has frequently typified
the administration and delivery of public assistance, which, in turn, places
minority groups who apply for assistance at a disadvantage.

Conclusion

Racism significantly restrains and minimizes the contributions that ethnic

minorities deliver in any society. Racism is pervasive within majority of
societies and continues to be silent code that methodically constrains the
opportunities for most minority groups. The consequent discrimination and
social exclusion of ethnic minorities can yield to a disadvantaged
socioeconomic position and poor health of ethnic minorities within the society.
Similarly, racism may disadvantage ethnic minorities as a result of the
psychological processes that might stem from the direct experience of racism,
or perceptions regarding living in a racist society. It is apparent that members
of racial and ethnic dominated groups persist to struggle for equal access and
opportunity, especially during moments of widespread, unemployment, and
inflation.